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INTERVIEW: ‘The Mist’ writer-director Frank Darabont

When it comes to interpreting author Stephen King's work to the screen, two names usually come to mind, one being Mick Garris who has adapted some of King's weightier novels as TV movies, but the only director who has earned more respect for his adaptations of King's work is Mr. Frank Darabont.

Although Darabont has shied away from King's horror stories with the three he's adapted, two of them, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, have earned Oscar nominations for Darabont's script. For his fourth collaboration with King, he tackles one of the master storyteller's most memorable short stories, The Mist, which first appeared in the 1980 horror anthology "Dark Forces" before being reprinted as part of King's "Skeleton Crew" collection five years later.

In the movie, which is very faithful to King's story, Thomas Jane plays David Drayton, a painter living in Maine whose trip to the supermarket with his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) turns into a nightmare as an impenetrable mist sweeps over the area, and they're trapped with a large group of panicking people who realize the danger and death in the mist for anyone who goes into it. Anyone who loves horror and sci-fi should appreciate what Darabont has done with the story, which combines a great ensemble cast that includes Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher and Toby Jones with lots of creatures and gore galore!

ShockTillYouDrop spent two days in the presence of Mr. Darabont, first with a couple more intimate interviews and then with a full-on press conference with Stephen King, which you can read and see here. Basically, if there's anything you still want to know about Darabont's take on The Mist, you should find it in the two interviews that follow.